Various systems allow users to electronically communicate with each other through a network, such as the Internet. For example, chat and messaging systems allow users to communicate with people they know, such as friends, family, and colleagues. These systems, however, often lack the ability to connect users with strangers. As a result, these systems generally limit a user's scope of communication partners to known individuals or referrals from those known individuals.
Some systems attempt to connect users, but generally do so for a specific purpose, such as dating or developing a relationship. These applications and systems typically require a large amount of personal data, often collected through a registration form and/or answers to survey questions, in order to function effectively. From the perspective of users, these systems are onerous and unattractive because of the substantial amount of time needed to enter personal information and preferences. As a result, these systems are not suitable for casual chat or messaging encounters.
Collected personal data may be used to estimate preferences of users and propose introductions of users with shared interests. For instance, users may be introduced to one another based on shared interests, occupations, and/or geography. Such approaches, however, suffer from one or more drawbacks, including inaccurate estimates of user preferences and/or the inability to adapt to changing user preferences. Other drawbacks include, for example, high levels of data collection and maintenance.